Cross Country Team Gears Up for Chile Pepper Festival
October 12, 2011LAWTON, Okla.—Cameron’s cross country team is gearing up to compete in the 23rd annual University of Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival.
The CU team has an excellent results so far this season and will again count on freshman standout Hillary Kirwa to lead them to a good finish. Kirwa has come in first in two of the races this season and took second in the other. The squad will also welcome All-American Julius Korir back to compete after he missed the first part of the season due to injury.
Cross country coach Matt Aguero said the Chile Pepper Festival will serve as a test for both men.
“This will be the toughest competition by far for Hillary. There will be several DI All-Americans in this race, so we’ll see where he stacks up,” Aguero said. “As for Julius, this is his first race back, so it will be an indicator of where he is at physically.”
Last year, the CU team finished 22nd out of 50 schools. This time around, Aguero is expecting a slightly improved result.
“It’s hard to tell how we’ll do, because we don’t know how many other schools are going to be there yet. It will be tough though since everyone runs the same race. There will be a lot of DI teams ranked in the top 25, which will be tough, but I expect that we can beat some of those DI schools and do well,” the Aggie coach said.
The race, which is hosted by the University of Arkansas, will begin at 9:45 on Oct. 15 in Fayetteville, Ark.
